Thrissur​: The defence put up by the ruling CPM in the Thrissur corporation council over the complaint against a party local committee member who has built his new house on the corporation land has fallen flat.
When the issue was raised in the council meet by opposition deputy leader John Daniel on Tuesday, former deputy mayor Varghese Kandamkulathi and councillor Anoop Davis Kada had said that the old house of CPM leader M.T. Jose on the purambokku had collapsed during the deluge in August. They had laughed at the allegation that he had two houses other than the one on the corporation land at Vadookara division.
A verification of the records of the corporation zonal office at Veliyalukkal has proved that Mr Jose owns a house at Vadookara division in his name near the one on the purambokku land.
The new number of the house is TC-40/1283 and the tax is paid in the old number VIII/329/B. The last tax was paid for the house in the name of Maniparambil Thomukutty Jose (M.T. Jose) on March 4, 2018.
"There are three rooms behind this house which have been rented out. Whether these rooms are built illegally also needs to be verified," complainant in the matter C.R. Sujith Kumar of Vadookara said.
The claim of the old house collapsing in the deluge has also boomeranged as the Koorkenchery village officer Bindu Davis and superintendent of corporation zonal office at Veliyallukkal E.D. Benny have said that they do not have any such records of the old house collapsing.
Neither the local CPM leader nor his family members have registered or stayed in the relief camp set up in the division as per the records.
"This was a ploy to build a new house on corporation (puramabokku) land for the CPM leader who already has a proper house by taking advantage of the deluge. I will soon hand over a letter to the corporation secretary against the illegal construction on the road side," Mr John Daniel said.
The corporation engineer had issued a stop memo to the CPM leader on Saturday citing illegal construction, but the work of the house is continuing and nearing completion, he added.
